Review article: Mycobacterium marinum infection of the hand and wrist.

Misdiagnosis and delayed treatment of Mycobacterium marinum infection is common because of its diverse manifestations. This leads to inappropriate use of antimicrobials, extension of the infection from the skin to the tenosynovium, and a poor prognosis (loss of tendons and prolonged immobilisation, secondary to multiple debridements and joint contractures). Clinicians should be aware of this type of infection, especially in subjects at risk (fishermen and aquarium enthusiasts), and those with a history of trauma coupled with exposure to water or marine life. A proactive approach to obtain a biopsy for histopathological and microbiological diagnosis is advised. Anti-mycobacterial treatment should be started promptly. The combined use of rifampicin, ethambutol, and clarithromycin appears to be effective, and debridement is indicated in patients with deep-seated infections.published_or_final_versio

An in vitro Evaluation on a Novel Root Canal Cleansing Method by Using Nylon Fibers

Despite traditional metal-based dental files, such as NiTi being demonstrated effective in root cleaning, the tooth structure is always damaged. Thus, to fulfill the need for a minimally invasive tool for contemporary endodontics and dentistry, the use of polymer fibers might provide a good option, as it is soft, fabricable, and disposable. In this study, two types of nylon fibers with respective average diameters of 206.9 µm (fiber W) and 156.4 µm (fiber B), respectively, were used as dental files, and mounted onto either a reciprocating or a low-speed rotary hand-piece. In vitro, simulated root canal models were colored red using nail varnish, and then cleaned by the fiber files mounted on the hand-pieces. Three parts of the simulated models, i.e., the apical third, the medium third, and the coronal third, were chosen to assess the cleaning the efficiency (CE) of each specimen by calculating the ratio of the cross-sectional area changes, before and after cleansing, using micro-Computer Tomography (CT). A NiTi file with a low-speed hand-piece was used as a control. SEM was used to observe the nylon fiber surfaces before and after the cleansing. Micro-CT results showed that for both the nylon fibers, W and B, an average CE of 82.11% ± 9.68% for the medium third could be achieved, which is statistically higher (p < 0.01) than the coronal third and apical third. The cleansing efficiency was not affected by, the types of fibers, nor the hand-pieces according to student’s t-test. Most of the nylon fibers could withstand deformation after the cleansing. To conclude, nylon fiber files have demonstrated a certain cleansing efficiency in simulated root canals, and micro-CT is a promising method to assess CE.published_or_final_versio

Polistes olivaceous decreases biotic surface colonization

The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the anti-bacterial efficacy of the honeycomb of Polistes olivaceous on oral biotic surface (biofilm) model by means of pH response, population of oral bacteria and enamel mineralization. Three copies of a three-organism-bacterial consortium was grown on hydroxyapatite (HA) surfaces in a continuous culture system and exposed to repeated solution pulses of sucrose solution every 12 h to construct a cariogenic biofilm on the HA discs in the flow cells. One flow cell was only pulsed with 500 μmol/ml of sucrose (S group). The second flow cell was pulsed with 500 μmol/ml sucrose and 2.5 mg/ml P. olivaceous extract (P group). The third flow cell was pulsed with 500 μmol/ml sucrose, 230 mg/L sodium fluoride and 0.2% chlorohexidine digluconate (C group). During the course of carbohydrate supplement, the pH of the S group dropped sharply compared with the others. The P group demonstrated pH recovery to baseline more easily than the S group (p < 0.05). The C group demonstrated very little pH drop. The P group displayed a lower level of colonization than the S group, which was reflected by a lower cariogenic bacterial count and a less compact biofilm especially after the third pulse. P. olivaceous suppresses bacteria growth and accelerates pH recovery. P. olivaceous may have stabilizing effect against cariogenic shift on the oral biofilm, preventing tooth decay. © 2009 Academic Journals.published_or_final_versio

Treatment of stiff thoracic scoliosis by thoracoscopic anterior release combined with posterior instrumentation and fusion

Background. Thoracoscopic anterior release has been shown that it can effectively improve spinal flexibility in animal and human cadaveric studies, and has been advocated for use in patients with scoliosis. This prospective case series aims to investigate the improvement of the spinal flexibility and the effectiveness in deformity correction by anterior thoracoscopic release and posterior spinal fusion. Methods. Eleven patients with stiff idiopathic thoracic scoliosis underwent anterior thoracoscopic release followed by posterior instrumentation. The average number of discs excised was five. Spinal flexibility was assessed by the fulcrum bending technique. Cobb angle before and after the anterior release was compared. Results. The patients were followed for an average of 5.6 years (range 2.2 to 8.1 years). Fulcrum bending flexibility was increased from 39% before the thoracoscopic anterior spinal release to 54% after the release. The average Cobb angle before anterior release was 74° on the standing radiograph and 45° with the fulcrum-bending radiograph. This reduced to 34° on the fulcrum-bending radiograph after the release, and highly corresponded to the 31° measured at the post-operative standing radiograph. Conclusion. It was demonstrated in patients with stiff idiopathic thoracic scoliosis that thoracoscopic anterior spinal release can effectively improve the spinal flexibility and increase the correction of the spinal deformity.published_or_final_versio

Duplications of the critical Rubinstein-Taybi deletion region on chromosome 16p13.3 cause a novel recognisable syndrome

Background The introduction of molecular karyotyping technologies facilitated the identification of specific genetic disorders associated with imbalances of certain genomic regions. A detailed phenotypic delineation of interstitial 16p13.3 duplications is hampered by the scarcity of such patients. Objectives To delineate the phenotypic spectrum associated with interstitial 16p13.3 duplications, and perform a genotype-phenotype analysis. Results The present report describes the genotypic and phenotypic delineation of nine submicroscopic interstitial 16p13.3 duplications. The critically duplicated region encompasses a single gene, CREBBP, which is mutated or deleted in Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome. In 10 out of the 12 hitherto described probands, the duplication arose de novo. Conclusions Interstitial 16p13.3 duplications have a recognizable phenotype, characterized by normal to moderately retarded mental development, normal growth, mild arthrogryposis, frequently small and proximally implanted thumbs and characteristic facial features. Occasionally, developmental defects of the heart, genitalia, palate or the eyes are observed. The frequent de novo occurrence of 16p13.3 duplications demonstrates the reduced reproductive fitness associated with this genotype. Inheritance of the duplication from a clinically normal parent in two cases indicates that the associated phenotype is incompletely penetrant

Predicting the Impact of Climate Change on Threatened Species in UK Waters

Global climate change is affecting the distribution of marine species and is thought to represent a threat to biodiversity. Previous studies project expansion of species range for some species and local extinction elsewhere under climate change. Such range shifts raise concern for species whose long-term persistence is already threatened by other human disturbances such as fishing. However, few studies have attempted to assess the effects of future climate change on threatened vertebrate marine species using a multi-model approach. There has also been a recent surge of interest in climate change impacts on protected areas. This study applies three species distribution models and two sets of climate model projections to explore the potential impacts of climate change on marine species by 2050. A set of species in the North Sea, including seven threatened and ten major commercial species were used as a case study. Changes in habitat suitability in selected candidate protected areas around the UK under future climatic scenarios were assessed for these species. Moreover, change in the degree of overlap between commercial and threatened species ranges was calculated as a proxy of the potential threat posed by overfishing through bycatch. The ensemble projections suggest northward shifts in species at an average rate of 27 km per decade, resulting in small average changes in range overlap between threatened and commercially exploited species. Furthermore, the adverse consequences of climate change on the habitat suitability of protected areas were projected to be small. Although the models show large variation in the predicted consequences of climate change, the multi-model approach helps identify the potential risk of increased exposure to human stressors of critically endangered species such as common skate (Dipturus batis) and angelshark (Squatina squatina)

The Two Faces of Anomaly Mediation

Anomaly mediation is a ubiquitous source of supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking which appears in almost every theory of supergravity. In this paper, we show that anomaly mediation really consists of two physically distinct phenomena, which we dub "gravitino mediation" and "Kahler mediation". Gravitino mediation arises from minimally uplifting SUSY anti-de Sitter (AdS) space to Minkowski space, generating soft masses proportional to the gravitino mass. Kahler mediation arises when visible sector fields have linear couplings to SUSY breaking in the Kahler potential, generating soft masses proportional to beta function coefficients. In the literature, these two phenomena are lumped together under the name "anomaly mediation", but here we demonstrate that they can be physically disentangled by measuring associated couplings to the goldstino. In particular, we use the example of gaugino soft masses to show that gravitino mediation generates soft masses without corresponding goldstino couplings. This result naively violates the goldstino equivalence theorem but is in fact necessary for supercurrent conservation in AdS space. Since gravitino mediation persists even when the visible sector is sequestered from SUSY breaking, we can use the absence of goldstino couplings as an unambiguous definition of sequestering.Comment: 21 pages, 1 table; v2, references added, extended discussion in introduction and appendix; v3, JHEP versio

Deamidated lipocalin-2 induces endothelial dysfunction and hypertension in dietary obese mice

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Minimal Flavour Violation for Leptoquarks

Scalar leptoquarks, with baryon and lepton number conserving interactions, could have TeV scale masses, and be produced at colliders or contribute to a wide variety of rare decays. In pursuit of some insight as to the most sensitive search channels, We assume that the leptoquark-lepton-quark coupling can be constructed from the known mass matrices. We estimate the rates for selected rare processes in three cases: leptoquarks carrying lepton and quark flavour, leptoquarks with quark flavour only, and unflavoured leptoquarks. We find that leptoquark decay to top quarks is an interesting search channel.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, minor changes and references adde